Saturday, November 13, 2010

Christmas with a Twist Blog Hop!

As you've probably heard by now, the "twist" is to not use traditional Christmas symbols like Santa or snowmen for today's hop. So I made a two page 12x12 scrapbook layout of our family opening presents last year! To add some fun, I also used the new Smiley Cards cartridge that was exclusive to the latest Gypsy update.

The first task was to arrange the presents on my Gypsy so that I could get them cut quickly. Here is a picture of my Gypsy screen. I used a 12x24 mat so I could cut everything at once. Note - I only cut the shadow, not the base image, as that would really just have been wasting a layer of paper for this project.

Next, I selected my papers and got them stuck onto the mat in all the correct places. All the papers were from Kaisercraft's two newest Christmas collections, Be Merry and Tis the Season.

Here's a shot of the cuts after they were completed.

I cut the presents at the following sizes:

Red - 4"

Brown - 3.5"

Green stripe - 3.5"

Candy cane - 3.0"

Reindeer - 3"

I used a variety of stickles, ink, googly eyes, and glossy accents to make my presents look unique and shiny.

Sadly, I only had one sheet of the Kaisercraft background paper that I wanted to use. Luckily, I had enough photos in my layout to cover the other half of the 12x12 area. So I cut my green patterned paper into pieces that would fit my layout:

I used two sheets of a light pattern that I would never use on anything (you know, pieces from that stack you have that you cannot for the life of you figure out why you bought it...) as my base paper to glue everything on to.

For my journaling on this layout, I used these two wishlists that were in the 6x6 pack of Kaisercraft's Be Merry collection. A closer view of those:

The final layout again:

I hope you have liked my layout and if you are still with me this far, you deserve a chance at my blog candy! :) I am giving away the gingerbread cart!

To be entered for a chance to win all you have to do is leave a comment with what gift you are most looking forward to giving this year and to whom. Also be sure to leave your email address or Cricut MB name in the comment so I can contact you if you win. Of course, if you would like to become a follower of my blog, I would appreciate it! I will announce the winner on Monday!

Cute LO and thanks for the chance to win the Gingerbread cartridge! I would love to add it to my library!

The gift that I am most looking forward to giving is a new chess board to our 10 year old son Parker. He just won 1st place in our school chess club on Thursday and he's been wanting a big wooden chess board with really nice playing pieces. I know that it will be a gift that he will love and get a lot of use out of it!

I love the presents on your layout!! I am looking forward to making the Spa Sock cupcakes to give to family this year. We always do cookies or make gifts to give to the adults in our family and every year I like to do something out of the ordinary.

What a great layout! I love how you made one paper stretch into two for your background page!! We do a lot of drawing for names for Christmas which takes the fun out of it for me a little. I am looking forward to giving my son a laptop. He is not expecting it. He is a college student and has very limited funds, and he isn't asking for much this year.

Very nice layout, I love the faces on the presents. I cannot wait to see my sons face when he opens up his Oilers Jacket! I am now following you and would love for you to do the same if have time.http://jennyplace26.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to giving my daughter an ornament that I bought for the baby she is expecting in February. I bought it several weeks ago and had it confirmed yesterday that it is indeed a girl. I purchased a little snowman with the name "Natalie" on it.

Love your layout, how creative of you to cut your paper and then place your pics to cover the open areas.I am hoping to give my 26yr old daughter a baby bug for Christmas, she is always using my E to make items for my grandchildrens school. She will love it.Cherylann (prinkles)prinkles@woh.rr.com

Love the LO and the presents are adorable. My son just got his first car and I am excited to give him his GPS for Christmas. I love giving gifts and seeing smiles on faces. I have also been working on making a DVD of our vacation to Disney when my kids were younger with their grandparents and us. I think they will be so excited!lfuchs1 at wi. rr. com

Love your layout! The presents are so cute, they remind me of when my son used to watch Blues Clues. The pesent I am most looking forward to giving this year is a scrapbook I have been working on for my 79 year old Mom. It has been a labor of love, so worth it!Cricut MB name: Gonescrappincdm317@yahoo.com

I love the present idea on the layout and it was so clever of you to "stretch" the paper to two pages! I am looking forward to giving my 20 yr old son a passport for Christmas. He hasn't asked for one but was joking about doing some traveling earlier this year so the passport will be a welcome surprise :)

Your beautiful LO sparks the eyes and is absolutely charming -- the twist with the smiley gift boxes is precious and oh so cute!!! I am looking forward to giving my DGD (age 7) the Egypt craft box she has been wanting. She is studying about Egypt and will be making a pyramid and other relics of this ancient civilization. She will be sooo excited as she adores making creative things!

What a cute layout!! I so love the Smiley Cards cart. What a bonus it was to get it!! Thanks for the inspiration! Will be back later to look around your blog more. Thanks for the chance--would LOVE to have that cart!!!!!!!CC MB TeacherMom

Absolutely beautiful layout! I have uglier paper than this! Ha ha! I love how you used up scraps... I am very impressed! And thanks for sharing how it looked on your mat etc. I just got a gypsy... not in time for the smiley cart. That is ok ... I am just happy to get one. I have so much to learn... I would love to win your candy... that cart looks so much fun... Thanks for the hop! I am a happy new follower!

Great layout. My favorite Christmas memory is when all of my sister and brothers with our children would meet up at my mom's house the week-end before Christmas. We would have a big celebration that week-end and then we would spend Christmas at our individual homes since we all lived in different cities. The children loved it!marionment@msn.com

absolutely wonderful! i am getting in the christmas spirit and it's early! :) we have been doing the smiley cartridge projects on sweetsassydiva blog this week. i'm so honored to be a part of this blog hop! TFS and the wonderful blog candy! I will be so excited for my dd this christmas as she is nearly 2 and will have fun opening her presents. :) love christmas with little ones!http://sweetsassydiva-gspot.blogspot.com

I love how you incorporated the Smiley faces into the presents in the layout -- very clever. Cute LO. I'll be giving glitter ornaments that I make to my famiy and a few close friends. Thanks for the chance to win.tcsobotka at charter dot net